1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice making device and a refrigerator having the same, and, more particularly, to an ice making device that is capable of uniformly freezing water received in an ice making tray, thereby completing the ice making process in a short time, and a refrigerator having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator is an apparatus that stores food in a refrigerated state or in a frozen state using cool air generated by freezing cycle components mounted in the refrigerator. The refrigerator includes a freezing compartment, in which an ice making device to make ice and an ice supplying device to supply the ice made by the ice making device to the outside are mounted.
The ice making device includes an ice making tray to receive water to be frozen, which is supplied from an external water source, and an ice separating motor to rotate the ice making tray such that the ice making tray is turned upside down, and therefore, the ice in the ice making tray falls into the ice supplying device. An example of conventional refrigerator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,955, which provides a refrigerator that injects cool air to the lower part of an ice making tray in the horizontal direction to gradually cool water received in the ice making tray from the lower part thereof, thereby making transparent ice.
However, the cool air injected to the lower part of the ice making tray is dispersed in all directions, and therefore, the flow speed of the cool air is lowered in a short time. Furthermore, the cool air has high density, and therefore, the cool air has a tendency to fall. As a result, the cool air gradually falls although the cool air is injected in the horizontal direction. Consequently, a large amount of cool air is supplied to one side of the ice making tray which is adjacent to the cool air injection part, and therefore, the ice making process is satisfactorily performed. However, a small amount of cool air having low flow speed is supplied to the other side of the ice making tray which is located away from the cool air injection part, and therefore, the ice making process is not satisfactorily performed. As a result, it takes an extended time until the ice making process is completed at the other side of the ice making tray.
In addition, the conventional refrigerator can make transparent ice; however, the conventional refrigerator cannot rapidly make ice in a short time.